Lost Briton, 18, rescued in Outback

SYDNEY – A lost British backpacker who endured three days in Australia’s punishing Outback survived by drinking his contact lens fluid and urine, his mother said Sunday.

Samuel Woodhead, 18, was found Friday at the sprawling and remote Upshot Station, about 130 km from the far-flung central Queensland town of Longreach, from where he had set off Tuesday.

He became lost in extremely harsh terrain and his mother, Claire Derry, credited his training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, in England, for his survival in the remote Outback with little more than sunburn and dehydration.

“He tried drinking his own urine and he wasn’t able to cope much with that, so he drank tiny sips of the contact lens fluid,” Derry told the Sun-Herald newspaper. “All he could say was ‘Mum, just thank these wonderful people. I’ve loved Australia from the minute I arrived here. These people are extraordinary.’ “